HOT CHILE:
CHILEAN WINES

Today, many good wines from Chile can still be had for less than a sawbuck, but the country's wine universe is expanding. Red wines still dominate but whites have improved considerably. New varietals like petite sirah and malbec are being offered. And better, more ageworthy wines overall are being produced, a few of which seek superstar status by breaking the $50-a-bottle barrier. One reason for this change is increased competition from value wines produced in

Australia, Argentina, Southern France, and Eastern Europe. Another is a natural evolution of winemaking techniques and vineyard practices, heightened by an influx of foreign money and expertise.

Wine companies from Spain, the United States, and France have invaded Chile like Forty-Niners looking for gold nuggets. Miguel Torres winery is owned by the famous Torres family of Spain's Penedes region. California companies Kendall-Jackson and Franciscan Estates have established Vina Calina and Veramonte wineries, respectively. Robert Mondavi is partners with Vina Errazuriz, producing Caliterra wines and Sena, a wine modeled after Opus One. Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, which makes Opus One with Mondavi, has linked up with Concha y Toro for another ultrapremium wine. Cousin Chateau Lafite Rothschild owns a chunk of the Los Vascos winery in Chile.

Foreign intervention is not new to Chile, though. The Spanish explorer Cortez introduced European vinifera vines in the mid-16th century. But the modern wine era did not begin until the mid 1800s when vines and winemakers from Bordeaux were brought in by wealthy Chilean landowners who had visions of creating a kind of Southern Hemisphere version of that legendary French wine region. Gradually, the simple black Pais grape which the Spanish planted was replaced by cabernet sauvignon, merlot, semillon, and sauvignon blanc (actually the related sauvigonasse), all major Bordeaux varieties.

Chilean wines sold well in the United States just after World War II, until European exports recovered from the war and California wines began to emerge. But the great leap forward began in the 1980s when the economic and political climate in the country began to improve, especially after public elections were held in 1988 and 1989.

Winemaking is very capital intense and the 1980s gave Chilean winemakers the confidence to invest, said Augustin Huneeus of Veramonte and a Chilean native. As a result, exports zoomed from 40 million liters in 1990 to over 215 million liters last year. So productive were Chile's wine producers that California companies bought Chilean juice, primarily merlot, to supplement their phylloxera shortened crop a few years back.

Unlike Europe in the late 19th century (and more recently California), Chile was spared the ravages of the phylloxera root louse because it is what Chileans call a sanitary island, surrounded by the Atacama desert (the driest on earth) to the north, the Andes to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west and Antarctica to the south. The dry fall and spring weather in Chile's main wine growing region also prevents mildew, which can be a problem even in California.

Grapes are planted over a 700 mile stretch in Chile, but the primary growing region is a fertile basin, bounded by the Andes and a lower coastal mountain range, that runs from about 50 miles north of the capital Santiago to 250 miles south of the city. Within this swath are the Aconcagua and Casablanca Valleys to the north, the Central Valley in the middle, and the Southern Region below that.

The Central Valley, which produces the vast majority of wines, is in turn, composed of four main subregions, the Maipo, Rapel, Curico and Maule Valleys, each of which has rivers that run west from the Andes to the ocean. For years Chilean wines grown throughout the Central Valley and beyond tasted pretty much the same. Though well made with exuberant fruit and soft tannins, they had little reflection of terroir (the French word for the combination of a specific region's soil, climate and topography that influences a wine's character) or individuality of the winemaker.

Today, wine makers like Alvaro Espinoza of Carmen and Ignacio Recabarren (Vina Casablanca, Conch y Toro) are as well known as their French and American counterparts. And the grapes they and other Chilean winemakers use are increasingly site specific. For example, the cool maritime influence in the Casablanca Valley promotes a long, slow growing season similar to the Carneros region at the southern tip of Napa and Sonoma counties in California. As a result, Casablanca produces crisp white wines (particularly chardonnay and sauvignon blanc) with bright fruit and firm acidity. Similar conditions exist in the Curico and Maule Valleys in the southern part of the Central Valley.

Concha y Toro is the biggest winery in Chile with a broad range of wines in several different price categories. For example, its 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Puente Alto Vineyard Don Melchor Private Reserve ($23) is perhaps Chile's best cabernet and the 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Trio ($9) is one of the better cabernet values. The company's second label, Walnut Crest, offers even better values, like a well-regarded merlot at $7.

The mid-priced Reserva line of wines from Vina Tarapaca (imported by California's Beringer Estates) is impressive at $10. Its Estate wines are good values at $7. Casa Lapostolle (owned by the French firm Alexandre Marnier Lapostolle) makes what may be Chile's best merlot, the 1995 Rapel Valley Cuvee Alexandre ($15), along with a fine cabernet sauvignon. Carmen, Errazuriz, and Montes also do well in both of those categories. At $54, Montes Alpha M, a Bordeaux style blend of primarily cabernet sauvignon with small quantities of merlot and cabernet franc, is the most expensive Chilean wine to date. (Sena is the other Chilean wine to hit the half-century mark in price.) Other top names in Chilean wine to look for include Cousino-Macul, Canepa, Santa Rita, Luis Felipe Edwards, Echeverria, Undurraga, and Santa Carolina.

As for Chile's future, the Southern region, which includes the Itata and Bio Bio Valleys, offers a great deal of promise according to Oz Clarke, author of "Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas." Because Chile is the reverse of the northern hemisphere, this region becomes cooler with more rainfall as you go further south, looking much like Oregon and Washington. Thus, pinot noir has a great future (particularly in Bio Bio) as do riesling and gewurtztraminer.

Sergio Correa, winemaker of Vina Tarapaca, says syrah, the primary red grape of the Northern Rhone in France, has the most potential of all the newer varietals in Chile. He has a similar gut feeling about viognier, the floral white wine grape from the same region. The quality of 1995 Carmen Petite Sirah Maipo Valley Reserve and 1996 Montes Malbec Colchagua bode well for these varietals, though don't expect large quantities anytime soon. Nor of the lush and long aging carmenere, a long lost red Bordeaux grape planted in Chile in the 19th century that is being revived. For now, though, it's cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc, and plenty of them.